as in labor
very hard or unpleasant work
after years of toil in a sweatshop, Kim was finally able to start her own dressmaking business
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in tangle
usually toils plural
something that catches and holds
a married woman hopelessly caught in the toils of an extramarital affair
Synonyms & Similar Words
as in to labor
to devote serious and sustained effort
toiled for many years on the mammoth outdoor sculpture
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of toil
Debbie Daniel, The Orlando Sentinel, 28 May 2025
His instincts were forged during the Cultural Revolution, in the 1960s and 1970s, when his family fell from grace and he was sent to toil in rural Shaanxi.
—Zongyuan Zoe Liu, Foreign Affairs, 29 Apr. 2025
Angel Saunders, People.com, 28 May 2025
Millions of Chinese workers migrate to the factories – toiling from summer until Chinese New Year and living in dormitories near football-field sized factories, noted the Times.
—Peter Cohan, Forbes.com, 25 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for toil
Noun
There’s also mental health counseling to help the students deal with the emotional toil that homelessness takes.
—Debbie Daniel, The Orlando Sentinel, 28 May 2025
His instincts were forged during the Cultural Revolution, in the 1960s and 1970s, when his family fell from grace and he was sent to toil in rural Shaanxi.
—Zongyuan Zoe Liu, Foreign Affairs, 29 Apr. 2025
Verb
The second image showed a mostly hollow building with the makings of a winding staircase as teams of construction workers toiled away.
—Angel Saunders, People.com, 28 May 2025
Millions of Chinese workers migrate to the factories – toiling from summer until Chinese New Year and living in dormitories near football-field sized factories, noted the Times.
—Peter Cohan, Forbes.com, 25 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for toil
Recent Examples of Synonyms for toil
Verb
-
Haliburton was laboring, and the Pacers were working around it.—
Tony East,
Forbes.com,
18 June 2025
-
Indeed, where Webb got soft contact and quick outs, needing just 98 pitches to complete his seventh seven-inning outing of the season, Yamamoto labored through hitters’ counts and long at-bats, issuing a career-high five walks while finding the strike zone on just 56 of his 102 pitches.—
Jack Harris,
Los Angeles Times,
14 June 2025
Verb
-
On offense, the Red Sox have predictably struggled without Devers’ bat in the lineup.—
Jen McCaffrey,
New York Times,
28 June 2025
-
However, San Jose has struggled to keep pace, with the city failing to see a single construction start last year for market-rate multi-family developments over 20 units, making the Pleasant Hills project a potential bonus should it be constructed.—
Devan Patel,
Mercury News,
28 June 2025
Verb
-
Kenn Ricci, founder of Flexjet, is an executive who strives to embody both while also running a business in one of the more challenging industries to be sustainable in, aviation.—
Alexander Puutio,
Forbes.com,
28 June 2025
-
But improvements on the field are what this group strives for each year.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
27 June 2025
Verb
-
Nishant lives in Vancouver, Canada with his wife and toddler, and is working on a book about the art of fatherhood.—
Nishant Jain,
The Dial,
24 June 2025
-
Evolution tends to repeat what works, AKA convergent evolution.—
Jahan Marcu,
Rolling Stone,
24 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Toil.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/toil. Accessed 6 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share